So the prof walks in on Friday and says, "I have your exams graded." Most of the students look stiffly away or down at their feet, like he just said, "I have your AIDS test results back!"
"I guess I made this test a little harder than I should have," he continues, and I blink. What? I studied for a 10, and his exam was a 3. Totally un-sneaky, straightforward questions covering exactly what he said he was going to cover. We had an hour to finish, and I was done in 20 minutes. Maybe there were backs to the pages and I didn't see the questions on them, so I only did half the test? Christ, that would be just the kind of boneheaded thing I would do!
"The grades were really kind of all over the place," he says apologetically, like it's his fault, "so I did curve the exam."
Uh-oh. If he had to curve it, we didn't do very well. Maybe he nailed me on my short essay. I knew I shouldn't have said the therapist was implanting false memories!
He stands at the front of the room holding a big stack of papers. "OK, I'll hand these back now. Add fifteen points to the score marked on your paper."
"FIFTEEN points?!" I blurt out. "That means we sucked!" Panic mode!
"Well, no, actually two people aced it," he says, looking directly at me, and I immediately feel better. My money is on me and the ex-cop. He and I studied together for two and a half hours the day before the exam, and we eventually got to the point where we couldn't stump each other any more no matter how hard we tried.
"You might be wondering if your score is capped at 100 with the curve," he continues, looking back at the class, "and the answer is no. So if the curve puts you over 100 points, just think of it as getting a little ahead on your next exam." Boy, that would be sweet to get a 105 or 107 or something like that.
I finally get my paper back and glance hastily at the top of the first page. It's the only red ink on the entire exam: one word, underlined twice. It says perfect!
That means I got a 115 on my first exam.
There are not enough smilies on the Internet to express my delight.
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